Electric conductor for exercising apparatus.



No. 655,67l' Patented Aug. 7, I900..

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ELECTRIC CONDUCTOR FDR EXERCISING APPARATUS.- A nmion filgd Mar. 10, 1900.)

(No Model.)

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THE Nona s PETERS co womuma" WASHMGTO" c UNrTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED M. OROOKER AND FRANK N. MCDONALD, OF BOSTON, MASSA- CHUSETTS, ASSIGNORS TO THE GALVANIO HEALTH EXERCISlNG COM- PANY, OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

ELECTRIC CONDUCTOR FOR EXERCISING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 655,671, dated August '7, 1900.

Application filed March 10, 1900. Serial No. 8,130. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern;

Be it known that we, ALFRED M. CROOKER' and FRANK N. MCDONALD, of Boston, in the county of Sufiolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Combined Exercising and Galvanic Electrical Apparatus, of which the following is a description sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable those skilled in the art to which it appertains or with which it is most nearly connected to make and use the same.

This invention relates to machines or contrivances for the improvement of the health and building up of bodily strength.

It is the object of the invention to provide an "exercising-machine, so called, and to combine with it an electrical device or apparatus for medical purposes and for the treatment of diseases, as well as assisting in building up muscle and increasing the strength of the user.

The invention consists, broadly, in the particular construction of portions of the cords drawn upon and resisted in their movements by weights or springs, combined with a galvanic or similar battery having electrical connection with the pulls of the cords, so that while the patient is exercising on the machine a treatment of electricity may'also be given, all as we will now proceed to describe and claim.

Reference is to be had to the annexed drawing, and to the letters marked thereon, forming a part of this specification, the same letters designating the same parts or features, as the case may be, wherever they occur.

The drawing represents a front view of one form of the device, parts being shown as broken away the better to exhibit the construction.

In the drawing, a designates a galvanic battery which is equipped with a wet or dry cell inclosed in the case (not shown) and also with an induction-coil of ordinary construction, whereby on the drawing out or forcing inwardly of the tube bthereof in the wellknown manner the voltage of the electricity employed in the machine is varied.

c, d, and e are binding-posts having connection with the battery and to which the wires fand g are connected. The wire f may be connected with the binding-post d or c, as the case may be, to vary the strength of the current, as is well known, the said wiresf and g running to and connecting with the expansible cords or electrical conduits h of the exercising-machine. These expansible cords are formed of helical coils of wire inclosed in an elastic casing i.

From the expansible or distensible portions of the cords and conductors h 71 there extend substantiallyrigid cords jj, through which the wires f and g extend through to the handles 70 It, as seen particularly at the left in the draw ing. These connections are so formed that by a person taking hold of the two handles 70 7c and the current of the battery being turned on a current will be set up through the cords and through the body of the operator as strong as may be desired or as may be fixed by the position of the tube b or connection of the wires f g with the bindin g-posts of the battery. The wires f g may extend from the distensible portions of the cords through the center of the cords j j or be otherwise incorporated therein, so as to be substantially insulated from anything that the cords may come in contact with, and the said cords jj may be passed around pulleys Z Z, connected with screw-eyes m m in the end of a block or piece n, which in turn is connected by means of screw-eyes 0 with the wall or partition of a building, and the lower ends of the distensible portions of the cords h 2' may be connected with any suitable device, as an an gle-piece 19, secured by means of a screw-eye q to the wall. The fastening 19 must, however, be insulated from the parts with which it is connected. These particular means for arranging the cords and screw-eyes are unimportant, since they may be changed to suit particular circumstances, and the grips or handles 70 70 may be made in any suitable way or of any suitable form to meet any particular require ments. It maybe stated, further, that the battery a may be of difierent structural char acter from that shown, so long as it is capable of transmitting a galvanic or electric current through the wires f and g to the grips or handles 7a of the exercisingunachine shown, the particular point in the invention being that a part of the conducting-wire is extensible and extends through an extensible tube or conduit, the latter forming an insulator for insulating the electrical conductor from any exterior obj ect,besides being extensible to perform useful functions in the exercisingdevice.

It is obvious that the galvanic battery a herein shown may be located in any convenient position where the operator of the machine may himself control the tube 1) of the induction-coil, or the battery may be located at a distant point and the wires connected with other means readily accessible to the user of the machine for controlling the strength of the electric current.

While the invention is shown and described in connection with a galvanic battery and induction-coil, no claim is made herein to the particular character of battery shown, and we do not desire that it should be understood that the claim extends beyond the structural character of the extensible cord employed.

Having thus explained the nature of the invention and described a way of constructing and using the same, though without attempting to set forth all of the forms in which it may be made or all of the modes of its use, it is declared that what is claimed is The combination, with the galvanic battery, of the exercising device consisting of the elastic and distensible insulated conduits i having the distensible conductors h therein, the distensible conductors 7L being connected with the rigid conductors jj, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this 7th day of March, A. D. 1900.

ALFRED M. CROOKER. FRANK N. MCDONALD. Vitnesses: ARTHUR W. Cuossnnv, ANNIE J. DAILEY. 

